Siberia fact slideshow

Amazing Pictures of Siberia

The size of Siberia is 9,734 thousand square km. This is 57% of the whole of Russia. By its surface area Siberia is only comparable with Canada, which is the second largest country in the world.

In Siberia there is a unique Lake Baikal. The size of ​​Lake Baikal is about equal to the square area of the Netherlands. It is the deepest freshwater lake in the world. It is also the oldest lake in the world. And it is the cleanest lake in the world. Only one river flows from the lake – the Angara River. The water in Lake Baikal is very clear – up to 50 m. Approximately 20% of the world’s fresh water is the water of Lake Baikal. In the Lake Baikal area each year more than 2000 earthquakes take place. At the lake most of the time there is sunny weather.

Great Vasyugan swamp is the largest swamp system in the northern hemisphere of the planet –it is located in the heart of the West Siberian Plain and it is a geographical phenomenon in the sense of an unusually wide distribution of swamps. It stretches from west to east for 550 km, and from north to south for 270 km. The square area of the Great Vasyugan swamp is more than 55 thousand sq. km (for comparison, the square area of Switzerland is only 41 thousand sq. km.). Great Vasyugan swamp in Siberia is a natural phenomenon that has no analogues in the world. It also contains the largest reserves of peat.

Permafrost means that the land is never thawed. About 65% of Russian territory is occupied by permafrost, and most of it is located in Siberia.

Permafrost is located in Siberia in the northern part of Western Siberia (about until the latitude of the Ob River) and in the greater part of East Siberia, Trans-Baikal. Negative temperatures penetrate the earth’s crust to a depth of up to 1300-1500 m; their minimal average values ​​reach -15 …- 16 degrees Celsius / 5…3 degrees Fahrenheit.

In the winter the temperature can drop below -60 degrees Celsius (-76 degrees Fahrenheit). Slightest breeze – and you will get frostbite. To avoid that, people cover themselves in the clothes up to their eyes.

Winter clothing in Siberia is a real art. Fur, cotton and wool are widely used, in particular, multi-layered. There are no short coats here – everything is long and substantial. All parts of the body should be covered.

Yakutsk is the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about 450 kilometers (280 mi) south of the Arctic Circle. Population: 269,601. Yakutsk is a major port on the Lena River. It is served by the Yakutsk Airport as well as the smaller Magan Airport. It is a major supplier of diamonds. Its average winter temperature is −34 °C (−30 °F), which makes Yakutsk the coldest major city in the world.

Yakutsk City, Siberia

GULAG was the acronym for the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps.

Gulag prisoners could work up to 14 hours per day. Typical Gulag labor was exhausting physical work. Toiling sometimes in the most extreme climates, prisoners might spend their days felling trees with handsaws and axes or digging at frozen ground with primitive pickaxes. Others mined coal or copper by hand, often suffering painful and fatal lung diseases from inhalation of ore dust. Prisoners were barely fed enough to sustain such difficult labor.

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